As some of you know, I love working with webcams when I deal
with lads. I routinely capture all webcam chats so that I never miss a single
webcam trophy. I can also play back a webcam session as my own webcam, or use
one of several "broken webcam" files I have. Today I'll explain how you can do
the same with some freeware programs.

As a codec I use Divx, but XVID will do just as well, plus it's free. This is to make sure your video
file doesn't become huge if you manage to keep your lad on webcam for an hour or
so. You don't have to use either codec if you don't want. You can just pick one
that's already installed on your PC. You'll see that option later on in the
tutorial

CAPTURING
YOUR LAD'S WEBCAM

First up you need to configure Autoscreencapture. There's not
much to play with. Just 2 pages. Firstly, create a folder on your hard drive
using Windows Explorer where you want to save the videos to. I've called mine
video, but you can call yours anything you like as long as you can easily find
it after.

The from page

And the to page

Make sure yours looks the same as mine, with Divx or Xvid as
the codec (or even the default codec - Windows media 1), rectangle area
selected, show mouse pointer deselected and the folder you created earlier to
save your work in chosen. And that's the first program set up. Now what you need
is a lad to show you his webcam.

When he does, then click on the start
button or press f9. Now when you move over windows you should see a multi
coloured band around it showing you that's what will be captured. You can
capture the entire webcam box like this

Or just the webcam image itself like this

Once you're happy with your choice, then left click to start
recording. Once you have enough footage then press f10 to stop. A message
telling you the file's been saved should pop up, along with Windows Media Player
showing you the file you've just recorded.

MAKING
YOUR OWN WEBCAM

Now it's time to use Manycam. You can go to the sources page and
choose your webcam, but what fun would that be? What you need to do is choose
Movies

Navigate to the folder you saved your lad's footage in earlier,
and choose the file you want to use. Once you've picked one, you'll see it
displayed

Go to the effects tab now, and click on text over video

Make sure that the "show ManyCam.com logo" option is unticked,
or your lad will see it's name on the footage.

To further convince your
lad that it really is your webcam, you can go to the time tab and add a clock to
the image

What about faking up a broken webcam? The easiest way would be
to choose "Blank image" as your source, but if you choose "still images" and
have some Photoshop knowledge, I'm sure you can whip up a pretty convincing fake
webcam image to use.

SETTING
MANYCAM UP IN YAHOO MESSENGER

Open up
Yahoo Messenger, then click on "Messenger" (top, left hand corner of Yahoo
Messenger), then on "my webcam" You'll see this.

Click on File, then Preferences and you'll see this.

Click on "Camera Source", then select "Manycam Virtual
Webcam". That should allow you to see the fake webcam in the window.

To
show your lad your new "webcam", look at the top of the chat window and click on
webcam.

Now your lad can see "you" or your broken webcam.

MAKING
STILLS OF YOUR LAD'S WEBCAM FOR TROPHIES

To play your file, you can use any video player you want. When you get a
part you want to save as a still image, pause the player and open SimplyCapture.
It doesn't matter if SimplyCapture is covering the area you want to save. Left
click on the small box inbetween "Capture Image" and "New" and a small menu
should pop down for you.

Click on "Selected Area" and the program will vanish. Your
mouse pointer should turn into a cross. Move it to one corner of the area you
want to capture, press and hold down the left mouse button and move it to the
other corner of the area. You should see a red dotted rectangle as you move the
mouse pointer. Once you're at the other corner, let go of the mouse button and
you'll hear a camera clicking noise. Then the program will pop back up with the
image you captured in it.

Click on the "Save" button and choose where you want the image
to be saved to. Now that you've captured an image, you can repeat the process
with any other parts of the video you want. The files are .BMP which are larger
than the .JPG files people usually post online, but when you upload them to a
PHOTOBUCKET account, it'll automatically
convert it for you and give you a link to post to show your trophy off using.

The finished product.

Have fun with your new tools. Remember that ManyCam will let
you use it as the webcam source on multiple IM programs at once, so you're not
just tied to the one if you want to look for lads elsewhere.

Some people
have said they had problems using AutoScreenRecorder, so here's an alternative
program you can use. It's called VIDSHOT CAPTURER

Once
you've installed and run it, you'll see this screen.

The first thing to do is to name your video file. You'll have
to do this for every file you save. Click on the button with three dots next to
the Video File window, then choose a location and file name. It should look like
this then.

Select "Window", then move your mouse pointer to "Select
window". Press and hold down the left mouse button and move the pointer (a green
+ in a green square) to the window you want to capture. You'll see green corners
appear on the windows as you move the pointer. Once it's on the webcam image you
can leave go of the mouse button. It should look like this now.

Don't let any other window cover the webcam while you're
recording it or it'll record that instead!

Click on the "Start" button
to start recording your webcam footage. To stop it, you have to press the F9
button or click the Screen Recording tray icon on the right hand side of the
taskbar. It'll then process the video and ask you if you want to see the
finished result. If you installed Xvid, you might see a window like this.

If you do, you can close it down. Now you've saved your video
file and can use it with ManyCam.